No prep? I am assuming theres no material cost in that either or you would be taking a huge loss..labor sounds a bit short by a couple hundred and I sure hope you have a double wheeled wheel barrow. They help tremendously

 

No prep? I am assuming theres no material cost in that either or you would be taking a huge loss..labor sounds a bit short by a couple hundred and I sure hope you have a double wheeled wheel barrow. They help tremendously

don't have one yet but would love one.

about 25 in rocks. I think 35 for fabrick. although most of it I would keep. only 41 ft would be used

 

Ugg
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Ugg
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what?

and no. no prep work. moving a couple hotter end I guess

 

I'll be honest with you.

If you did minimal to no prep and and the rock was as cheap as you said, then yes, you came out fine.

We would have been around the 375-425 range, but our river rock is closer to 50 a ton.

The fabric we also use comes in a 4x400 roll that costs 90 bucks a roll.

But, I would have also would have used landscape staples to hold the fabric in place that would have been another 25 bucks.

Now, if there was more prep work involved, that included edging of some sort, grading, etc.... then your 300 would have been on the short side of the spectrum.

Some guys will say you didn't charge enough, but that's not true. There is still a market value for this type of service. Where you make your money and stay within a competitive pricing structure is when you have 3 of these types of jobs to do in one day.

......

 

yea. no real prep work with this one. tho he thought it was to much.

 

That sounds a little rough. Most of my mulch jobs are in that range
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yea. no real prep work with this one. tho he thought it was to much.

 

What did he think was too high ab it? Usually those customers think you should do the job for what it costs you
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What did he think was too high ab it? Usually those customers think you should do the job for what it costs you
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just the overall cost.

funny you say that. had a customer once ask what the materials cost was and I said 52. he actually asked if I would do the job for 50.

I just turned around and started waking away

 

just the overall cost.

funny you say that. had a customer once ask what the materials cost was and I said 52. he actually asked if I would do the job for 50.

I just turned around and started waking away

Tell him $225 ill start tomorrow

I don't give materials costs out
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this instance was a bit different. but usually I'll give an itemized estimate so they know what they are buying. invoice is just a whole price. don't want to worry about sales tax. I do not markup materials

 

I do not markup materials

You need to.

Marking up materials covers your time and cost in getting those materials. Otherwise your just wasting time and money.

Not marking up for materials is basically not putting a personal value on your time and effort. Do you hate yourself?????

.......

 

At the moment i do not do enough landscaping to justify the work it woudl take and hte little bit of markup i could have and keep a competitive price.

besides. if i want to make profit. i can make up for it in labor costs, rather than material costs. then i dont have to worry about taxes since i'm not marking up hte price.

 

I don't "mark up" materials. I just work it in to labor. Basically by giving them an itemized break down you are giving them the opportunity to scrutinize every little thing. I basically say on invoices.

4/25. Mulch services: prep, purchase, pick up, delivery, installation, labor, taxes. $225.

This is just an exaple
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You need to.

Marking up materials covers your time and cost in getting those materials. Otherwise your just wasting time and money.

Not marking up for materials is basically not putting a personal value on your time and effort. Do you hate yourself?????

.......

We don't mark up materials we add onto our labor for our time getting the materials to the job.

 

I don't put all of that on the estimate, only the cost of materials and the labor for all of instillation. There really isnt a way to scrutinize it because it's less than the cost of what they would get if they went to the supply themselves. I do get a couple percent less. maybe 6 i think.

 

this instance was a bit different. but usually I'll give an itemized estimate so they know what they are buying. invoice is just a whole price. don't want to worry about sales tax. I do not markup materials

So I guess your running a non profit operation
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I don't put all of that on the estimate, only the cost of materials and the labor for all of instillation. There really isnt a way to scrutinize it because it's less than the cost of what they would get if they went to the supply themselves. I do get a couple percent less. maybe 6 i think.

Right. But if you want help, here it is, DON'T put the cost of materials sold on you prop or invoice. Then, double your prices.
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I don't put all of that on the estimate, only the cost of materials and the labor for all of instillation. There really isnt a way to scrutinize it because it's less than the cost of what they would get if they went to the supply themselves. I do get a couple percent less. maybe 6 i think.

You operating a hobby or a business?

Sounds as if you are running a hobby.

You buy materials and only get 6% off.

I know a retail nursery center. When I started out I would go there and they gave me 10%. That 10% was my mark up. I said I have to find a wholesale supplier.

I did. Now those $40+ bags of fert are now $20 to $28. I also mark up each bag $10. My time and fuel to get them is now being covered. Plus I charge for my labor to put it down.

Even with the $10 mark up the customer still can not buy fert cheaper at Lowes or Home Depo.

The same reason you do not tell a customer that you charge $60 an hr @ 4 hrs to do a clean up. You tell them $240. Customer sees a lot of work and will pay to $240 to not bust their but. Soon as you say $60 hr to pickup leaves they think you are a crook.

You do an install. You do not itemize the mulch and labor you give them one total price.

Now I just gave a customer several prices for several jobs.

The hedge trimming job, and the spring clean up, edge and mulch bed job, tree work, aerate, reseed with fert and lime.

None of those jobs were broken down. Each job was stated as one price. This way the customer could prioritize and pick and chose the one's that she could afford to have me do now.

She never was told how many hours I would take to any of these jobs. Which is different from telling a customer when I would start and or have the work completed by. No break down of labor verse material costs.

People pay doctors and lawyers big money because they can not do the work themselves.

Many people can not work on their own cars so they pay repair shops $120 an hour.

Most people realize that it does not take special skills to pull weeds and push a lawn mower. They can do this themselves. So when they here $60 an hour they will say I'm not paying that.

This is why you can not sell work at high enough prices.

A customer can see that you are charging them $28 for a cy of mulch and then hit them for $60 labor to install. The customer will say I can spread mulch for an hr and keep the $60 in my own pocket.

Though by pricing mulch at $88 a cy the customer just thinks wow that much money. Boy that LCO has a look of wheel barrows of mulch to push or bags to carry. I do not want to work that hard let me pay the LCO to break his back.

You have to make the customer perceive that you are offering a great value.

You will never sell work at good prices when your pricing gives the customer the motivation to do the work themselves.

 

So I guess your running a non profit operation
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I was just trying to get the guy to pay up front for the whole year. only took 5 minutes to do the application.

 

don't have one yet but would love one.

about 25 in rocks. I think 35 for fabrick. although most of it I would keep. only 41 ft would be used

Where and what kind of fabric are you buying for $35???????

 

OK I guess its only 22.77

 

OK I guess its only 22.77

The fabric?

What size roll?

 

3 feet by 50 feet approximately